As Mexican-president elect prepares to take office

Less than two weeks before Mexican president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) takes office, he has repudiated the majority of his electoral promises. His administration will accelerate the militarization of the country and intensify the ties between the government and the financial elite.

Last week, AMLO, a supposed “leftist,” announced the creation of a new National Guard as part of the administration’s security plan. During his campaign and in the aftermath of the elections, he repeatedly vowed to take the military off the streets. There is widespread anger at the catastrophic levels of violence that have torn apart Mexican society, with murder rates matching those in war-torn countries. Since the “war on drugs” began in 2006, more than 250,000 deaths and 30,000 disappearances have been recorded by official statistics.

AMLO’s anti-militaristic posturing undoubtedly played a role in his election victory, which earned him the most votes out of any Mexican president in history and his party, the Movement for National Regeneration (Morena), control of both houses of Congress in the July 1 elections.

His phony pledges of breaking with the “repressive strategy” of previous administrations have been fully exposed before he even takes office. In fact, AMLO is doubling down on the militarization of society in preparation for the growth of the class struggle.

The proposed National Guard will initially be composed of 50,000 members of the Army, Navy, and Federal Police and will incorporate new recruits in later years. By 2021, the National Guard will consist of between 120,000 and 150,000…